Climate Change: The Facts - by David Attenborough

If you missed last night's ABC screening of Climate Change: The Facts here's the link to see it on iview.

There's an explanation of climate change, it's impacts and what we can do to reduce it. Being a David Attenborough documentary it also contains some amazing footage:

• Australian bats littered on the ground after a heatwave, (perhaps turn away at that point if you're an animal lover)
• Dashcam footage as a father and son driving through a bushfire to escape it - only to realise that was impossible, (their escape was quite miraculous)
• Flames coming out of ice. This was a demonstration of the quantity of ice-trapped methane in the permafrost. When this permafrost melts (due to climate change) this methane will be released and cause even more climate change. This is what's called a tipping point.

There's also amazing stats:

• British heatwaves are 30 times more likely than in the 70's.
• Greenland is losing ice at 5 times the rate that it was just 25 years ago.
• The US state of Louisiana is losing land the size of a football field every 45 mins - due to sea level rise - and already people have had to abandon their homes.

Sometimes our tendency is to avoid change even when it's necessary. It's important to remember that the "cost of action is dwarfed by the cost of inaction".

Some more David:
David Attenborough's Great Barrier Reef

Sale this weekend - LED bulbs

This Saturday Aldi (in Australia) are having an amazing sale on LED lights - which are super efficient. How efficient? Their conversion chart shows just how much less power these bulbs use to give the same light. Huge savings.

So much do these amazing pieces of technology cost? Not much.

LED bulbs are $2.99 (to replace a standard bulb)

Dimmable LED bulbs are a bit more - $6.99.

LEDs downlights to replace halogens are just $4.99.

If you're wondering how that compares to the energy the old bulbs are using, check out my Super Easy Energy Calculator.

A 60W bulb for 4 hours a night costs $24 per year in power - just for that one light. It's a great deal to slash that cost for just a few dollars. And the planet wins too.

Is there any reason not to change?

Aldi's sale starts Saturday while stocks last - so be quick.

Super Easy Energy Cost Calculator

How much energy does a light bulb use? Is it worth replacing? Those kind of answers can be found with this easy guide.

Find the light bulb wattage on the left hand side. Across the top find the hours per day it is used. Where that row and column meet is the cost of powering that light bulb for one year.

An old 75 Watt bulb running 5 hours a night costs $37 a year. Definitely worth changing to a more efficient option.

It also works for other items - if you know their power usage. A stereo that uses 10 Watts in standby mode all day will cost $24 a year even without playing any music (might be worth turning off at the wall). A laptop computer that uses 20 Watts and is used for 4 hours per day will cost just $8 to run.

For this calculator I've assumed 27 cents per unit of electricity. If your price is different then the estimates may vary.

Also, if the exact wattage isn't in the table, use one that is close to it as an estimate. Or if you've got a calculator you can do the exact calculations yourself. Here's the formula:

Cost = Watts x hours/day x 0.365 x price($/kWh)

How to save 88% on power

Check out the blue and red boxes on this energy sticker (for our washing machine).

Those numbers (55 and 464) represent the energy needed for cold and hot washes. Quick maths shows the blue number is 88% less than the red number.

To put that another way, the hot wash uses more than 8 times as much energy. Surely this is a no-brainer.

For cold washes that's a yearly total of $14.85 in electricity. If we used hot water, that number would surge to $125.28. Woah, that's a big difference.

The cold wash button is a real saver.

Choosing the right lights

Often there's a mental barrier to getting energy-saving lights. They cost money.

Is it worth it?

Yes. Even if you're renting. For your main lights, most upgrades make their money back in less than a year.

The Checkout did the maths for a light that's on 5 hours per night at a price of 30 cents/kWh.

A six dollar bulb can save you around $20 every year! That's an amazing return on your money.

Plus they also last longer. So in the long run you save even more by not having to replace them as often.



The video also mentions the Light Bulb Saver app. It's handy for calculating the saving for your particular situation and is available on Google Play and iTunes.

Energy Freedom

Want to reduce your energy bills and your greenhouse emissions?

Energy Freedom is a program helping Australians make their homes high-performing, comfortable and zero emissions. With technology available now, home owners can be highly-efficient - cutting energy consumption to a much smaller amount - and then generating that amount from solar.

There are example Success Stories - a family in Victoria is now saving $4700 a year. A Brisbane family has halved their energy costs despite the addition of two children - and still has further savings to make.

One of the strategies they suggest is to switch from gas to electric - as there are more efficient electric products. A new report by ATA - Are we still Cooking with Gas? - has determined that for a new homes it is not even worth connecting to gas. Also, warmer states (like mine) have the best economics for converting to electric.

PS. Another benefit of being energy neutral is that (as batteries become cheaper) you could disconnect from the grid and stop paying electricity bills.

Solar in my street

It's quite enjoyable to see so many people taking advantage of solar power. Also great to be able to see it each day. This is a view in my street.

These people have gone solar at different times. The different sizes reflect how affordable panels have become - with households going from 6 to 12 to 24 panel systems.

In 5 years time, the top house in the picture could even go off-grid. That's how quickly battery prices are coming down.

LEDs at Aldi

Once again, Aldi have some low-price LEDs for sale. For $7.99 there are halogen-style replacements, and 'mini-bulbs' with the smaller base. For $10.99, there are the normal bulb-style replacements.

The two great things about this is (1) They are dimmable, for those who have had troubles with CFLs on dimmer switches, and (2) they now go up to 1055 lumens - which is about 75W in the old language (as per Aldi's conversion chart below). The other two pictured appear to be about 40 and 60W, so they've covered a fair range of brightnesses.

As per usual with Aldi, these are 'while stocks last', so you'll probably want to get in on Saturday before they're all gone.

A Solar Win for an At-Home Dad

A good friend is looking at getting solar. He works from home and has a kid. I said that solar these days is especially good for his situation, as the more of the solar power you can use directly in your home, the greater the saving.

To explain, I did the maths (like on my Solar Maths page). This is the system he's looking at:

For $8,184 his 6kW system should generate about 9072 kWh a year. That would be a saving of between $1,270 and $2,667 per year, depending on how much is for his own use. Or to put it another way - a 15.5 to 32.5% return on his money. Much better than paying it off the mortgage.

I surprised even myself when I did these calculations. The prices of panels are just so good now. It inspired me to update my Solar Maths page with today's panel prices.

PS. Just to clarify, household solar power goes to the home first (a saving of 29.4 cents per unit) and any excess is then fed into the grid (the credit you receive for this can vary but is often around 14-16 cents). Hence the variation in the amount of savings, and hence my comment about the savings being higher for people (like my friend) who are consuming electricity during the daytime hours.

Economy or Ego-nomy?

A guy at work was saying "you don't get a return for the money you spend on CFL light bulbs". So I decided to join the conversation, mentioning that a single one can save you $25 dollars per year - assuming 4 hours use each night.

He said "Sure, for those ones. But what about the ones in rooms you hardly ever use?". Later I did the math. It turns out that even a room that gets used 8 minutes a night (like a toilet for instance) is still worth switching to CFL.

But here's what I found odd. People will worry about whether it's worth buying a $3 CFL to save on energy, but are happy to pay $30,000 to $100,000 more for a house with extra rooms they obviously don't need.

That night a friend commented to me that the problem is not the economy, it's the ego-nomy. Her theory is that we could easily consume less energy and material goods - and actually be better off, psychologically and economically. But ego-nomically we might struggle. It seems that society strokes our ego only when we can point to (wastefully) expensive purchases.

I hope that changes. It would be great if the admired decisions were those which are good for us, good for society and good for the planet.

Are you paying more than your neighbour?

It turns out the answer to this question is the biggest motivator to save energy.

Alex Laskey, through his company opower, has enabled households to save 2TWh (2,000,000,000 kWh) of electricity this year.

That's a heap of energy. The equivalent of burning 34 wheelbarrows of coal every minute of every day, for a year.



It's inspiring stuff. I find it amazing how much we can save just by not wasting energy. He estimates that 40 billion dollars is wasted in the US alone - just to light empty rooms and air-condition empty houses. That's a lot of money to waste.

Thanks to my work colleague for sending this to me. I recommend you watch it.

Sucked in by sticker price

Spotted this outside my local Kmart on the weekend. Looks cheap, doesn't it? I'm sure they sell much less if the true cost was on the sign.

The star rating sticker (with the disappointing 1 and a half stars) tells me this fridge consumes 250 kWh/year. At the current electricity price that's $73.50 per year. After a couple of years, the power would have almost cost more than the fridge itself.

To put it another way, over 10 years (assuming 10% price increase each year) it would cost $1170 to run this "cheap" fridge.

A classic case where paying a few bucks extra for a more efficient fridge can save you big money - as well as reducing greenhouse emissions. Everyone's a winner.

PS. Compare the costs of various fridge models at energyrating.gov.au

2 charts in 1

1. Increasing electricity prices mean that energy efficiency is better value than ever. 2. The carbon price is a very small part of home electricity.

Previously I needed two charts to make these points, but now this chart does both.

Clearly, there has been a significant increase over the years (and these prices don't include the 10% goods and services tax). So the savings you make by choosing the energy-efficient fridge / feezer / TV / hot water system / light bulb etc are greater than ever.

Also, the carbon price is that little grey sliver above the black bit. Yes I know - it's way smaller than you might have thought judging by all the over-inflated talk over the past couple of years.

Even though it's small in the overall price we pay for electricity, it is significant in comparison to the black section (the cost of making energy) so that encourages the electricity generating companies to use more renewables and less coal.

The Most Ridiculous Thing At Work

We've all seen ridiculous things at work. One of them is energy wastage. It's funny when we see other things being as obviously wasted as energy is.



This ad is the sequel to the Most Ridiculous Thing (home version) in the Powersmart campaign in Canada. I love the tag line:

The most ridiculous thing about wasting power is that for some reason we don't think it is ridiculous.

Low-price Energy Meters at Aldi

One step to saving energy at home is to know where your electricity is going. From Saturday (while stocks last) Aldi have these energy meters for $14.99.


To me that sounds like a good price, I got mine for $30 a few years ago, and (from the picture) this one looks to have much the same functions.

If you get one, here's how to convert the reading (in Watts) into a more meaningful number, like financial cost.

Dollars per year = Watts x hours of use per week x 0.052 x 0.25378
The last number is the price of electricity in dollars, which may differ depending on where you live.

PS. The Aldi sale appears to be an energy theme - there are also LED bulbs available again.

How to Insulate Your Home

With winter coming on in Australia, many people are thinking about keeping warm and saving money. So the ATA has put together this webinar on insulation.


Sustainable building specialist Tony Isaacs discusses the different types of insulation, and give recommendations for different climates and house types. The ATA also has other webinars, such as lighting and energy efficiency.

The ATA also run an event called Speed Date a Sustainable Designer. It's for people building or renovating a home, and provides the chances to have some 15 minutes "dates" with some of Australia’s best green designers.

The Most Ridiculous Thing

The Canadians have this great ad. I like the tag line:

The most ridiculous thing about wasting power is that for some reason we don't think it is ridiculous.

It's part of the campaing for Powersmart, and it's one of those ads that's funny because it's true. We wouldn't waste other things the way we waste energy.

For instance, old-style lightbulbs use 5 times the energy of CFL spiral-style bulbs. It's hard to think of anything else where we would buy 5 times as many as we need.

UPDATE: See the sequel ad - the workplace version.

Earn $100 by helping a friend

Part of what makes Every Rooftop a social venture is the word-of-mouth spreading of the idea (as opposed to annoying ads on tv). As an incentive, if you refer a friend to the program, you'll get $100.


It seems similar to the tupperware model - where the host of the party is rewarded if the guests spend a certain amount of money. Except in this case your friends end up with lower electricity bills, and can create solar energy. Now that's a win-win situation :)

$900 million dollars a year

Last week i mentioned that Australia passed the milestone of 1 million homes with solar power. After that announcement, one solar company crunched the numbers on what that means.


$900 million dollars worth of electricity can be generated in the year by these solar panels. Of course more panels will be installed during the year, so we could easily see over a billion dollars of electricity generated by Australian households.

Like the above photo, it's something that excites me as a fan of renewable energy. It's also see individuals taking positive actions that together make such a great difference.

How we made our first million

Australia recently installed the 1-millionth household solar panel system. Here's a break down of how each state helped us get there.


Of course, I'm a little proud that my home state of Queensland was way ahead of the rest - particulary the more populous states of NSW and Victoria. I guess we really are the sunshine state :)

[State data courtesy of Renew Economy]
[Further Analysis - Australia's solar landmark]